Pays and Ways – What’s The Difference?
A Guide to Pays and Ways Slots
New to online slot machines? You’re going to see the terms ‘paylines’ and ‘ways to win’ quite often when reading about the games, but the difference between the two might not be clear just yet.
Some of the more modern games use ways to win, while some of the older classics have the original paylines on the reels. Read on to find out all you need to know about pays and ways slots, and how they award wins.
Online Slot Paylines
Fire up the reels on any classic online slot machine, and you’ll find a play area which uses paylines to award winning combinations.
Traditional slots had just three reels and a single payline, but players now have a much wider range of games to pick from. Rainbow Riches has 20 paylines, while others may have up to 100.
The aim has always been the same. Land matching symbols - usually at least three - from left to right on one of the paylines to bank a payout. The more symbols you have across the reels, the bigger the prize!
Standard paylines can be fixed or configurable, which means you can choose the number of active lines in some online slot games. Try out some of our casino slots to see how this feature works. Spin the reels on the popular Ancient Egypt-themed game Cleopatra from just 1p.
Ways to Win
Played slots online with paylines before? There’s a chance you’ll have had spins where enough matching symbols appeared, but not in the right pattern to land a winning combination. Here’s the great news - this isn’t the case in ‘ways to win’ games.
The ways to win mechanic took paylines out of the equation, so it doesn’t matter where the symbols land. All you have to do is hit the identical symbols on at least three adjacent reels to win real money.
Most of these games have 243 ways to win available, but Megaways slots have taken them to another level. The mechanic was introduced by Big Time Gaming in 2016, and Great Rhino Megaways has up to 200,704 ways to win every time you hit spin!
Play for big wins on Megaways slot titles at Virgin Games. Experience the likes of Deal or No Deal Megaways: Jackpot King and Egypt Megaways, both of which have sizzling progressive jackpots up for grabs.
Cluster Pays Slots
Ready to add another type of video slot into the mix? Check out Cluster Pays games, which have no paylines or ways to win at all.
Cluster Pays machines are played out on a grid, meaning there are no classic slot-style reels. Symbols fall into place when you hit ‘Spin’, and at least five matching symbols must land in adjacent positions to win.
When clusters are formed in these games, the winning symbols are normally removed from the grid. This creates space, which is filled by new symbols, so a chain reaction of payouts can start from a single spin!
Head to our blog to find out how to play cluster pays slots. Take a look at some of our top Cluster Pays games including Jammin’ Jars and Rise of Atlantis.
Free Online Slots in Demo Mode
Want to take all these incredible games for a test spin before you start playing online slots for real money? You can do just that thanks to our demo versions.
Use the demo modes to find your favourite online slots. Watch how the base game works, and trigger bonus features like Free Spins or Re-spins, so you’re familiar with the mechanics before placing a real money bet for the first time.
Paylines, ways to win or cluster pays - which will be up first?
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